Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, Honored With 2024 Marion Spencer Fay Award

The annual Marion Spencer Fay Award was presented to Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, by the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership on November 7, 2024, during Discovery Day, which was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The event included a lecture by Jagsi followed by the award presentation.

Dr. Jagsi is the Lawrence W. Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, as well as a senior faculty fellow in Emory University's Center for Ethics.

Learn more about Dr. Jagsi [PDF]

Dr. Jagsi was honored with the 2024 Marion Spencer Fay Award for her transformative and uniquely impactful research, clinical care and leadership, and her work identifying and eliminating gender and racial disparities in both patient outcomes and career advancement in the medical profession, as well as her demonstrated commitment to mentorship. Her visionary and inspiring leadership embodies the legacy of Dr. Marion Spencer Fay.

The national Marion Spencer Fay Award, now in its 61st year, is presented annually by the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership of Drexel University College of Medicine to an outstanding woman physician and/or scientist who has made an exceptionally significant contribution to health care as a practitioner, medical educator, administrator and/or research scientist and who exhibits significant future potential. The award includes $10,000 to support the recipient’s work.

Nominations for the 2025 Marion Spencer Fay Award will open in February 2025. Please contact Janine Barber at 215.991.8194 or jkb48@drexel.edu for more information.

Marion Spencer Fay News

September 16, 2024: Nina Schor, MD, PhD, the 2022 Marion Spencer Fay Award honoree, has been selected as one of the 2024 awardees of the Society of Neuroscience's Bernice Grafstein Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Mentoring. Read more.

April 2024: Marina Picciotto, PhD, the 2020 Marion Spencer Fay honoree, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy was founded in 1780 to honor "exeptionally accomplished individuals" and "convenes leaders to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and advance the public good." Picciotto is the Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, and a professor of neuroscience and pharmacology in the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine.

About the Marion Spencer Fay Award

The Marion Spencer Fay Award is a national award to honor achievement and excellence in medicine and science and is presented to a woman of distinction, innovation and leadership. Past Marion Spencer Fay Award honorees include Julie Overbaugh, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and Nancy C. Andrews, MD, PhD, dean of Duke University's School of Medicine. Learn more about past honorees.

Marion Spencer Fay, PhD, was dean and president of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania from 1946 to 1963. The National Board for Women in Medicine established an award in her name in 1963 to recognize her pioneering leadership.

This national award is given annually to a woman physician and/or scientist who has made an exceptionally significant contribution to health care as a practitioner, medical educator, administrator and/or research scientist and who exhibits significant future potential.

Formerly administered by the National Board for Women in Medicine, the award continues under the guidance of the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women's Health and Leadership of Drexel University College of Medicine, which maintains the traditions of the Woman's Medical College and the Medical College of Pennsylvania that reflect a 160-year legacy of excellence.

• The award recipient is selected from nominations submitted to a special committee, appointed by the Institute, dedicated to the principles of the Marion Spencer Fay Award.
• The presentation ceremony is attended by distinguished academic, medical and scientific leaders and the award includes a $10,000 honorarium to support the recipient's work.

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